Steam Carnival: Playtime on the Intersection Of Cirque Du Soleil And A Video Arcade

for those who’re in San Francisco this weekend and wish to see what it will be like to cross Cirque du Soleil with a video arcade, you should check up on the Steam Carnival.

The brainchild of los angeles-primarily based manufacturing company Two Bit Circus, Steam Carnival is a three-day event in social gathering of STEM—science, expertise, engineering, and math—with a whole lot of artwork thrown in for excellent measure.

Sound like Maker Faire? That’s ok, according to Brent Bushnell, the CEO of Two Bit Circus, and his cofounder, CTO Eric Gradman.

“For us, there’s so much wonderful stuff for youngsters to do once they’re excited—Maker Faire, FIRST Robotics,” and so forth, Bushnell says. “Our viewpoint is, if you’re fascinated about science and know-how, you’ve received.”

built around 5 areas inside one hundred twenty,000 sq. feet of San Francisco’s Pier forty eight, the Steam Carnival will center of attention on play, virtual fact, science exploration, creation and invention, and presentation of things which might be a mix of high-tech circus and conventional circus, defined Bushnell.

Two Bit Circus not too long ago raised $6.5 million in funding, a reward for a company that Bushnell, the son of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, mentioned used to be “birthed out of the fact that (Gradman) and that i are each nerds and love building device and electronics.”

That love of playful science manifests itself at the Steam Carnival in all kinds of high-tech and inventive games. among them are Dunk Tank Flambé (“Like a regular dunk tank, but with fireplace”); Off Your Rocker Racing, which pits racers in opposition to six others, each of whom is riding a saw horse kitted out with an accelerometer and a digital monitor to show your pace; and the Bungee Laser Maze, “a gloomy tunnel of surprise to crawl, or stroll via. just like in James Bond or Ocean’s Eleven.”

the whole thing on provide on the carnival was once built by Two Bit Circus, which via necessity way it’s somewhat just a little smaller than Maker Faire, where the whole lot is created by using individuals. that provides the adventure a curated, high-down design way, Bushnell explains.

nonetheless, Two Bit Circus needs everybody who displays up to get deeply involved, and to get their fingers soiled playing with issues, making an attempt out new experiences, and hopefully, developing one thing nobody’s ever considered prior to.

“It’s so much extra enjoyable doing issues,” Bushnell says, “than studying about other people doing issues.”

it doesn’t matter what, although, visitors must take part. now not a single one of the crucial many huge-scale video games to be had to play require fewer than six avid gamers.

And it doesn’t matter what, says Bushnell, you gained’t have a lot choice however to giggle and have fun playing with different visitors.

for their section, the oldsters at Two Bit Circus have had no finish of fun growing the games that they’ll offer up to Steam Carnival visitors. “now we have gotten the chance to build and play-check video games we’ve all the time wanted to do,” Gradman says. “My favourite thing is seeing, every day, game after sport being produced, examined, and located to be fun. It’s nice seeing the seems to be on kids’ faces.”

Bushnell revels in getting to monkey with individuals’s expectations of spectacle, efficiency, and participation.

“My favorite thing is just how excited folks are,” he says. “I’ve been obsessed with circus and carnival my entire life….once I get to share with those that we’re building a high-tech circus, i know whether or not or now not they’re paying consideration, because ninety nine% of the time, they’re like, ‘Wait what?’”